Once called the “Pearl of the East,” Ayuthaya—the artistic, spiritual, and military center of Southeast Asia—was the capital of Thailand from 1350 until its destruction by marauding Burmese 4 centuries later. Thirty-three kings of carious dynasties built hundreds of temples and created thousands of images of Buddha in a city-state that archives claim was one of the richest in the entire region. The city’s destruction in 1767 was so complete that rather than rebuild, the heartbroken king chose to relocate his court to Bangkok, 50 miles downriver, where he would soon build the Grand Palace. Today Ayuthaya’s ruins hint at the city’s former splendor, and visitors with a healthy imagination (and a good guide) will easily grasp its onetime grandeur and importance. While you’re there, check out the former kraal (stockade), where wild elephants were once kept and which is now used to rehabiliate ones that are elderly, injured, or orphaned.

Where: 50 miles/80 km north of Bangkok.

Best Time: November-February for the cooler dry season.

Read more on 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and the calendar line here.

Happy pub day to the brand new edition of The Girl’s Guide, a book as witty as it is brilliant as it is necessary.

At its simplest, it’s a guide for girls, born of one question (“What do you know now that you wish you’d known in your 20s?”) and one goal (to speak to modern women who have questions about everything—not just dating, but online bank accounts; not just social media but bikini waxes and job interviews and manners that make a difference and on and on).

It’s been through a few different looks since it was first published in 2006.

Looking back at the first cover is kind of like looking at your high-school picture.

In celebration, we’re sharing some of author Melissa Kirsch’s witticisms. Below you’ll find words to live by, with a pinch of snark and a healthy dose of empathy.

You’re a living, breathing person, not a series of hashtags and check-ins.

We’re all living in the Real World. Your life is right now.

A girl cannot live on witty Gchat correspondence alone.

Do not underestimate the joy inherent in a pile of clean, warm clothes.

If you feel like an anvil might very well fall out of the sky and crush you to smithereens every time you sit down at your computer to write a cover letter, or if the idea of even skimming job postings online gives you the dry heaves, take heart.

Calories are not the demon spawn of fat, but a measure of energy content.

Forkfuls of Dijon mustard do not a meal make.

You never really stop needing your parents’ approval. You’re never magically an adult.

Try to limit your shopping excur­sions to quests for specific items: “Today I need to find a good winter scarf” vs. “Today I am trolling for happiness.”

Look into the other person’s eyes when you shake hands. I don’t mean give them the “Let’s get it on” smoldering gaze, but rather the “I’m pleased to meet you,” perfectly pleasant eye-lock.

Nothing says “I’m faking a sick day” more than someone who gives the fine details of her stool consistency to her boss over the phone.

Thou shalt not flirt with the person your friend is interested in, involved with, has a crush on, or noticed first.

Humility is just as attractive as your third Instagram post this week.

And perhaps most importantly:

We have only so much time here—let it be spent on doing things that make us like ourselves.

The Girl’s Guide is available wherever books are sold including the following online retailers:

It’s impossible to be objective about Paris, possibly the most beautiful and romantic city in the world. The architecture, manicured green spaces, bridges over Seine, café life, and joie de vivre of its soigné citizens all conspire to make the City of Light an elegant and timelessly exciting place to visit.

Top Attractions:

1. Arc de Triomphe: The largest triumphal arch in the world (163 feet high and 147 feet wide) was erected by Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate his imperial army’s victories. It’s the site of France’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and at the top it has a viewing platform and multimedia exhibit allowing you to inspect the arch’s glorious sculptures and friezes up close.

2. Basilique du Sacré-Coeur: Gleaming white and with a 272-foot-high central dome, the outside of the cathedral is almost confectionary. Inside is one of the world’s largest mosaics, depicting Christ with outstretched arms. The view from the dome is breathtaking; on a clear day you can see for almost 20 miles.

3. Tour Eiffel: Possibly the most recognized structure in the world, the Eiffel Tour was built as a temporary centerpiece for the 1889 Universal Exhibition. Today, it’s the symbol of Paris, providing a view of up to 40 miles from its observation platforms. On its second level at 400 feet, Alain Ducasse’s restaurant Le Jules Verne gives new meaning to the term “haute cuisine”; should your budget not match those heights, dine on the first level at 58 Tour Eiffel.

4. The Louvre: Once the largest palace in the world, now one of its largest art museums, the Louvre is home to the Mona Lisa, the armless Venus de Milo, I.M. Pei’s controversial glass pyramid, and some 400,000 works of art—35,000 of which are on permanent display. Stretching for half a mile along the northern banks of the Seine, the palace was initially a medieval fortress and was expanded into a luxurious royal residence.

5. Notre Dame: A “symphony in stone,” according to Victor Hugo, the Cathedral of Notre Dame is the historic, spiritual, and geographic heart of Paris. Its foundation stone was laid by Pope Alexander III in 1163, and construction was completed nearly two centuries later. A 422-step climb to the top of the north tower provides close-ups of the bestiary of gargoyles, the 13-ton bell Emmanuel in the south tower, and a magnificent 360-degree view.

Read more on 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and the calendar line here.

On Waffle Day, you can have waffles for breakfast, lunch or dinner! It’s also the only day of the year that we are actually waffling a traditional waffle. Celebrate with us by making Buttermilk Cornmeal Waffles from Will It Waffle?

Here’s the thing about buttermilk: You probably don’t keep it on hand at all times, but you’re making a mistake. It holds for a long time. What? Did you think it was going to go sour? And while there are limited applications for it, once you have it, it’s easy to find excuses to use it up. So you will get the buttermilk because you want to make waffles (or pancakes). . . and then you will make more waffles (or pancakes) because you have more buttermilk. Buttermilk works well in this recipe because it yields slightly tangy waffles. Chances are, everything you put on the waffles will be sweet, so this recipe will bring that into balance. Even the little bit of cornmeal lends the waffles a golden hue and a slight corny flavor and crunch. Yes, whipping the egg whites is an extra step, but it takes about 90 seconds to do and it makes a huge difference. Don’t skip that part.

Ingredients:

1¾ cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup finely ground cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, separated

1¾ cups buttermilk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Nonstick cooking spray

Butter and maple syrup, for serving

Directions:

1. Preheat the waffle iron on medium. Preheat the oven on its lowest setting.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, and salt. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, buttermilk, butter, and vanilla.

3. In a medium-size bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks.

4. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients while gently mixing. Then gold the egg whites into the batter.

5. Coat both sides of the waffle iron grid with nonstick spray. Pour the batter into the waffle iron, close the lid, and cook until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes.

6. Remove the waffle. To keep it warm, place it on a wire rack in the oven. Repeat Step 5 to make the rest of the waffles.

7. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Tip:

If you enjoy having buttermilk in the house for pancakes, waffles, or waffled hamburger buns, but don’t use it often enough to justify buying a quart, consider powdered buttermilk, which is available online and in the baking aisle of some grocery stores.

Will It Waffle? is available wherever books are sold including the following online retailers:

1. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (pictured above): The narrow valleys and lush, steep slopes of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest offer the chance for an encounter of the closest kind with a rare mountain gorilla in its last remaining habitat. It is only here, and just across the border in Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, that these powerful but gentle creatures are still found. Today, Uganda and Rwanda are courting tourism to help protect these magnificent beasts. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park allows a limited number of visitors accompanied by authorized guides to track the gorillas.

Best Times: May-August and December-February to avoid the rainy season, when roads are often impassible and the forest is hot, humid, and muddy.

2. Murchison Falls: Murchison Falls has been called the most exciting thing to happen to the Nile in its 4,200-mile stretch. It is a fitting East African counterpoint to the massive 5,600-foot expanse of cataracts at Victoria Falls along southern Africa’s Zambezi. Here, in Uganda’s largest national park, the mighty Nile explodes through a rock cleft 23 feet wide before plunging 131 feet with unimaginable force. It is a mesmerizing sight, whether approached on foot or by boat. If you choose the latter, you’ll slip past massive animals along the way—sometimes 100 grunting hippos appearing around the a bend, and everywhere some of Africa’s largest crocodiles, immobile, watching.

1. Connemara (pictured above): Connemara is difficult to pinpoint: It is not a town or a valley, but a ruggedly poetic corner of County Galway, a region or Ireland known for its romantic landscape and peat bogs. Oscar Wilde called it a “savage beauty.” Wild, lonely, and for the most part uninhabited, Connemara makes up the western third of the county and was once part of the biggest private estate in Ireland. From its perch along the Atlantic, Clifden, the quaint, unofficial capital of the region, affords excellent views as well as easy access to the immensely scenic Sky Road, one of western Ireland’s most delightful (and less trafficked) drives.

Where: Clifden is 50 miles/80 km north-west of Galway.

Best Times: in Clifden: mid-September for Arts Festival; 3rd Thursday in August for Connemara Pony Show. Fishing: February-May for spring salmon; June-July for grilse; August-September for sea trout.

2. Aran Islands: With an ever-dwindling population, the trio of windblown Aran Islands, off Ireland’s western shore, offers a window onto centuries past. Visitors come here for the moody, starkly romantic beauty, where the primary language is Irish Gaelic and the occasional pony-and-trap cart still travels the narrow roads. Most tourists today visit the largest island, Inishmore (Inis Mór), and Dún Aengus, the haunting ruins of a 4,000-year-old megalithic cliff fort.

Where: 30 miles/48 km off the coast of Galway City.

Best Times: June 23rd for St. John’s Eve; June and August for Pátrún festivals; late June for Inisheer Craiceann.

3. Galway: Poised at the edge of Europe, Galway is Ireland’s unofficial arts capital. It’s also been known since 1954 for celebrating oyster, which gets its due at a massive festival in September. As for the pleasures not enjoyed on the half shell, Galway hosts Ireland’s largest interdisciplinary arts extravaganza, with public performances including citywide dancing in the streets; a festival of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music; major literary events; and Ireland’s leading film festival.

Where: 52 miles/84 km north of Shannon.

Best Times: April for Cúirt International Festival of Literature; May for Galway Early Music Festival; July for Galway Arts Festival, Galway Film Festival, Galways Races; August for Criunniú na mBád (Traditional Boat Festival); September for International Oyster Festival.

Read more on 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and the calendar line here.

March 14 (3/14) is celebrated annually as Pi Day because the date resembles the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter — 3.14 for short. But here at Workman, we can’t resist the urge to share a delicious pie recipe. Follow the instructions below to make Petsi Pies’ Sweet Potato Pie from Teeny’s Tour of Pie!

This was one of my favorite pies to make while I was at Petsi Pies because it meant roasting tray after tray of sweet potatoes in the large commercial ovens. The tubers’ sweet, earthy smell filled the small space as they baked, and they were especially fun to peel and plop into large plastic containers, where they sat before being mashed and combined with different spices and poured into the waiting pie shells.

The crust recipe below makes enough dough for three 9-inch pies, so you can use one dough disk right now and refrigerate or freeze the other two for later. The dough will last up to two days in the refrigerator and up to two weeks in the freezer.

1. Make the crust: Place the 3 cups of flour, shortening, and butter in a large bowl and gradually work it together with a pastry cutter until it resembles a coarse meal, 3 to 4 minutes

2. Beat the eggs with a fork in a small bowl. Pour it into the flour mixture. Add the cold water, vinegar, and salt and stir together gently until all of the ingredients are incorporated.

3. Separate the dough into 3 equal balls and place each into a large plastic bag or wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Flatten the balls into disks about ½ inch thick. Seal the bags or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or longer—see headnote). (If you will be using the dough immediately, you can put it in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes to chill, instead.)

4. Meanwhile, preheat the over to 375°F with a rack in the middle position.

5. Make the filling: In the bowl of a food processor or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sweet potatoes, eggs, evaporated milk, sugars, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, vanilla, and butter and blend on medium speed until smooth. Set aside while you roll out the crust.

6. Remove one disk of dough from the refrigerator or freezer and allow it to thaw until it’s cold but malleable. On a floured surface roll the dough, starting at the center and working your way out. (Sprinkle some flour over the top of the dough if it’s a bit too moist.) If the dough is sticking, use a metal spatula and carefully scrape it up and flip it over and continue rolling until it’s about ½ inch larger in diameter than your pie pan and ⅛ inch thick.

7. With the plastic scraper or spatula, life the dough carefully from the surface of the counter into the pie pan. Gently press the dough into the pie pan and crimp the edges. Set the lined pie pan on a rimmed baking sheet.

8. Give the sweet potato filling one final stir and pour it into the unbaked pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes at 375°F, then reduce the heat to 300°F and bake until the filling is firm and a knife inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean, 50 minutes more. Let cool for 10 to 12 minutes, until the pie firms up a bit and won’t be hot to the touch, before serving.

Note: To bake the sweet potatoes, scrub them, prick the skins all over with the tines of a fork, and place them in a 375°F oven until they are soft when pierced with a fork, about 1 hour.

Teeny’s Tour of Pie is available wherever books are sold including the following online retailers:

“It was Peter Workman’s fiftieth birthday, and the publicity person, Andrea, came around to everybody and asked each of us to wrap up a golf ball. I had just started here; I had only been working maybe two or three weeks. I looked at the golf ball and I said, ‘What do you mean wrap the golf ball?’ She said, ‘Just wrap a golf ball. Do it creatively.’ We were only about fifty people at the time. I said to myself, ‘What am I gonna do here? I have no idea.’ So I went home and I wrapped the golf ball. I didn’t give it a whole heck of a lot of thought.

“The day of the party, we all went into the lunch room and there was a big pile of gifts on the table. Peter came in and he started to unwrap the presents, and the first one he opened was a beach bucket that somebody had filled with sand and put a golf ball inside, like it was in a sand trap. He unwrapped it, and he proceeded to unwrap more presents and more presents and more presents, all of them decorated golf balls. Finally, he opened up one and it was an avocado, so he said, ‘This can’t be a golf ball; it’s an avocado.’ He showed it to everybody, and he was looking at it and looking at it. He opened it up, and where there should have been a pit, there was a golf ball. I said to myself, ‘Wow, this is a really creative company: everybody!’ It wasn’t just the art department–normally I’m used to just the art department being creative, but that gift was from someone in editorial. It was very interesting, because I said to myself, ‘This is a company I want to associate myself with. This is someplace I want to be.’”

International Sales Department Meeting

Elisabeth Scharlatt | Publisher, Algonquin Books | 26 years

“In our old office there was a sign at the reception desk that said ‘Workman Publishing: Books, Calendars, Parties,’ and I remember that before the company got so big and the industry got so complicated, we had a lot of parties. It was a much more informal company. As the business has grown, we’ve had to keep up with the digital world and the different ways that books are read and distributed. But we still have parties.”

Our Chicken Relaxing in the Relaxshack

Erica Moroz | Algonquin Books | 10 days

“It’s a very nice work atmosphere. Everyone’s very friendly and helpful, and encourages you to ask questions. We get bagels on Mondays. I think the most important thing for a new person to know is that everyone is ready to answer your questions.”

Brain Quest Display

Mike Vago | Art Studio | 10 years

“The biggest thing that we do all year in the studio is BEA, the industry’s biggest trade show. We set up this gigantic booth. We make big posters, we make giant books, huge displays, and all kinds of other things. Every year, there are always one or two little things that go wrong and I always think, well, next year we will get it right. The biggest, most complicated thing we ever did was put together a show and a party at the same time. I rented a pickup truck to drag posters and things back and forth between our office and the Javits Center. It all went off perfectly: Every sign was in the right place, nothing was missing, everything was great. It was all perfect. I walked outside to get back in the truck. I reached into my pocket and discovered that I didn’t have the keys. I ran to the truck and it was unlocked, with the keys in it, running, right in front of the convention center with like 50,000 people streaming past, and nobody noticed. I got in the car and it was fine.”

Special Sales Meeting

Marilyn Barnett | Gift Sales | 8 years

“The offices are painted all these bright colors, and when you come down the steps you don’t get a really good idea of the layout. So when I first came here, I got lost every time I left my office. The first week I found myself visiting people that I never met again! That’s an amusing memory, looking back, since I never get lost anymore.”

Workman Entrance

Phil Gerace | Credit Department | 33 years

“Carolan Workman used to work late a lot, and I used to work late a lot, and the office had been broken into a few times. So we hired night guards. One night I was showing them how to use the phone PA system. I picked up the phone and I projected it through the whole office and said, ‘This is security! Don’t you move! We’ve got you covered!’ Well, Carolan heard this and called 911 and said to them, ‘I’m really scared, would you stay on the phone with me?’ and they said, ‘Absolutely.’ She was hiding under her desk with the phone when the police came. There was a lieutenant, a sergeant, and about ten cops. I’d gone back to my desk and didn’t know about any of this yet. I heard a buzz at the front door, so I ran upstairs and there was a long hallway–probably a quarter mile, maybe a little less, I may be exaggerating. I saw about a dozen cops at the glass doors and I ran all the way to the front to let them in. By the time I got there, because I’m out of shape, I couldn’t breathe. I buzzed them in and I tried to talk to them but I was huffing and puffing, and they said to me, ‘Who are you?’ and I said, ‘Well, I work here.’ I was telling them the story and they said, ‘Well, we have a call from Mrs. Workman. You guys were broken into and the robbers are here, she heard the announcement.’ Now I burst out laughing. I thought, I’m probably gonna get fired for this. I said ‘Come on, I’ll show you where she is.’ They said, ‘She’s under her desk.’ I turned white because now I was thinking, oh my god, Carolan crawled under the desk. But we laugh about it now. It’s a great memory.”

What a Great View!

Lauren Southard | Marketing Department | 1 year

“The Christmas party is a lot of fun, with a lot of cookies and food.”

Suzanne’s Office

Ian Gross | Contracts Department | 10 years

“When we published the book Take a Nap, Change Your Life we did a napping study, and a bunch of us got to roll out yoga mats under our desks and take a nap in the middle of the day to see if it affected our work in the afternoon.”

Story Blocks

Shirley Ortiz | Customer Service Department | 20 years

“My very first week working at Workman–I started in October– I remember coming in after school to report to work, and it was right around Halloween, so everyone was in costume. I thought it was just the coolest company, because in the middle of the day everyone was in a costume. That left an image in my mind of what the company was like and I haven’t been disappointed.”

Children’s Editors Testing Out Story Blocks

Nancy Murray | Production Director, Artisan | 27 years

“I used to go on press in Japan. When I go on press, I’m making sure that whatever we’re printing looks as good as possible. After sort of a stressful time on press, the printers took me out for dinner and then to a karaoke bar, and they all sang, ‘I love, I love, I love my calendar girl.’ It’s an old song. And that was pretty funny.”

Washi Tape

Jenny Mandel | Special Markets and New Business Development | 23 years

“At my first interview with Peter Workman, we were sitting at the round table in his office. He was talking to me about the books, and he was so excited that he knocked his glasses off his face as he was gesturing. His glasses went flying across the room. But he kept talking about the books and I thought, ‘Should I go pick up his glasses? Why isn’t he getting his glasses?’ But it was all about the books, his focus was on the books, and I loved that he never wavered from his focus on the books.”

Workman Books on Display

Justin Krasner | Editorial Department | 4 years

“I met with an author two weekends ago, and he asked us to get under a tarp–a giant tarp, actually it was a garbage bag–so he could show us some ideas for his book. What are some crazy things that I’ve done? Oh, well, I had to dress up as the Brain Quest mascot once for the Boston Book Festival, which was great, wearing a dog suit, head and all. Lots of weird stuff, wonderful stuff, wonderful weird stuff.”

International Editions

Colleen Venable | Kids’ Art Department | 7 months

“I always joke around and say that I have Tom Hanks’ job from Big: It’s like, ‘Here’s a random crazy thing, lets see if we can make it!’”

Birthday Celebration

Kylie McDonald | Editorial Department | 9 years

“I really love all the retirement parties and Christmas parties, and also the parties where we celebrate people’s anniversaries. It’s really nice to hear stories from people who have been here for so long.”

Washi-Taped Bike

Maisie Tivan | Editorial Department | 8 years

“There were some problems with a Scanimation book, and it was troublesome; a lot of the images weren’t right. So four of us went to the warehouse in Wisconsin. It was really amazing because most of us don’t get to see the warehouse, and it was cool to go out there. We went through 15,000 books or so–it was some crazy number like that–and we checked all of them. It was cool. We were there for a couple of days and it was a lot of work, and it was really hard. It was really different from what I usually get to do.”

Evening View

Walter Weintz | Sales Department | 11 years

“I used to take trips up to Storey Publishing with Peter Workman. It’s a long drive, about three and a half hours from New York City. Peter and I would go up there two or three times a year, and it was always just so much fun. Talking about books, talking about authors, talking about music–and the meetings that we had at Storey were fun, too. It was nice to be out of the office. It was always interesting and stimulating being in Peter’s company.”

Book to Come…

Peggy Gerak | Credit Department | 23 years

“I can remember us all climbing up on the roof at 708 Broadway (a former office location). There must have been 200 of us. We all got on the roof and they took our picture for Publishers Weekly magazine. It was amazing how we all got up there together.”

“I have a fear of dying in a car, and I realized that six out of my eight novels include someone dying in a car.” –Gabrielle Zevin, Author of the Bestselling Book The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

Bobby Walsh | Photo Department | 2 years

“The Christmas parties are always really fun.”

Endless Cups of Coffee

Evan Griffith | Editorial Department | 6 weeks

“On my first day here, all the editorial assistants took me out to lunch. That was really nice, it was a cool, welcoming thing.”

1. The Rocky Mountain Parks: Spanning the crown of the majestic Canadian Rockies are Banff, Jasper, and Yoho National Parks, collectively known as the Rocky Mountain Parks. Banff was Canada’s very first national park and is now a 2,656-square-mile giant and Canada’s No. 1 tourist destination.

2. The Gulf Islands: The rock-faced Gulf Islands lie sprinkled between the mainland city of Vancouver and Vancouver Island, in the Strait of Georgia. These deep-forested islands are a haven for celebrities, eco-farmers, artists, and travelers seeking gorgeous nature, classy country inns, and top-flight culinary outposts.

3. Museum of Anthropology: Rising from a cliffside meadow above the Strait of Georgia, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia houses phantasmagorical carvings by British Columbia’s indigenous artists: towering totem poles; squat tree-trunk sculptures of ravens, sea wolves, and bears; and intricately painted masks of cedar and feathers.

4. Stubbs Island Whale-Watching: Separating Vancouver Island from the cedar-flanked coast of British Columbia, Johnstone Strait near Telegraph Cove is home to the world’s largest concentration of orcas.

5. The Inner Harbour: Replete with beautifully preserved Victorian-era architecture, British Columbia’s capital, Victoria, has always enjoyed its reputation as being “more British than Britain.” The Inner Harbour is Victoria’s centerpiece, a pocket-size inlet flanked by historic buildings and bustling with sea-going vessels.